Assad: Syrian Chemical Weapons Attack “100% False Flag”

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has echoed Putin’s declare chemical ‘false flag’ assault was orchestrated by the West with a view to justify U.S. army intervention in Syria.

In an unique interview with AFP, Assad says that he believes the U.S. authorities orchestrated the assault, claiming that “positively, 100 % for us, it’s fabrication.”

“Our impression is that the West, primarily the United States, is hand-in-glove with the terrorists. They fabricated the entire story with a view to have a pretext for the assault.” Assad instructed AFP.

The Syrian chief additionally welcomed an investigation, however provided that the probe into the assault remained neutral.

“We can solely permit any investigation when it’s neutral, after we be sure that unbiased nations will take part on this delegation with a view to be sure that they received’t use it for politicized functions.” Assad mentioned.

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But Assad mentioned proof got here solely from “a branch of Al-Qaeda,” referring to a former jihadist affiliate that’s among the many teams that management Idlib province, the place Khan Sheikhun is positioned.

Images of the aftermath, displaying victims convulsing and foaming on the mouth, despatched shockwaves world wide.

But Assad insisted it was “not clear whether it happened or not, because how can you verify a video? You have a lot of fake videos now.”

“We don’t know whether those dead children were killed in Khan Sheikhun. Were they dead at all?”

He mentioned Khan Sheikhun had no strategic worth and was not presently a battle entrance.

“This story is not convincing by any means.”

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has begun an investigation into the alleged assault, however Russia on Wednesday blocked a UN Security Council decision demanding Syria cooperate with the probe.

And Assad mentioned he might “only allow any investigation when it’s impartial, when we make sure that unbiased countries will participate in this delegation in order to make sure that they won’t use it for politicised purposes.”

He insisted a number of instances that his forces had turned over all chemical weapons stockpiles in 2013, beneath a deal brokered by Russia to keep away from threatened US army motion.

“There was no order to make any attack, we don’t have any chemical weapons, we gave up our arsenal a few years ago,” he mentioned.

“Even if we have them, we wouldn’t use them, and we have never used our chemical arsenal in our history.”

The OPCW has blamed Assad’s authorities for not less than two assaults in 2014 and 2015 involving the usage of chlorine.

The Khan Sheikhun incident prompted the primary direct US army motion towards Assad’s authorities for the reason that conflict started, with 59 cruise missiles hitting the Shayrat airbase three days after the suspected chemical assault.

Assad mentioned extra US assaults “could happen anytime, anywhere, not only in Syria.”

But he mentioned his forces had not been diminished by the US strike.

“Our firepower, our ability to attack the terrorists hasn’t been affected by this strike.”